Procrastinator

How mad should you be when he is not ready for bed, and when you say, "Are you done with your [get ready for bed] checklist?" he jumps up and says, "Oh, I got carried away in my bible and forgot."

Turkey Cookbook

Cook a turkey like a pro in 4 simple steps

by: Cameron (age 8)

Before the turkey could be set on the table, it needed to be cooked. Here is how to cook one.

First, wash it off and add 3 tsp of salt and pepper. Also add 1 cup of love and hope.

Next, put it in the oven at 350˚F for half an hour, checking every 10 minutes. Also have stuffing too.

Last, cut the turkey into pieces about the size that the family would take for a serving and set it on the table.

So now the turkey is perfectly golden brown and ready to be eaten.

Whoa, Dude!

Having your eyes dilated really sucks.

Then again, it's kinda good to get to skip school because you can't see.

Time To Think About Homework Already?

The homework cubby Cameron built for 3rd grade.

Birthday For An 8 Year Old

When I showed him the invitation the first time, he said, "Cool! The Horsehead Nebula!" He wanted me to put the Orien Nebula on the cake instead, but I stuck to the graphic I had. He did draw me a diagram of the cake to let me know how he wanted the candles arranged.

Rowdy boys in a pool.

Hey, everyone, look at me for a picture! Yeah, right.

Bummer. I didn't get a good face shot, but it looks like he likes his DSi.

8x8 Array

I thought it might be a cabin or a watch-tower, but I was wrong. Can't quite figure out why his array has a roof, though.

Because We Are The Luckiest Parents In THE WORLD . . .

. . . he is learning to play the ukalele.

He was picking out tunes on it within 10 seconds of owning it. He tuned it by ear using the piano.

First Year At Camp Pinecroft

He has been waiting for this for a long time.

I can remember waiting to finally be old enough to go to Pinecroft before my first year. . . in 1979! LOL

Private Concerts

Cameron has decided that he will learn to play piano, so he is teaching himself. This is day 3.

Readers' Play

The second graders had a readers' play at the end of the school year to show how well they all read now. Cameron chose narrator, "because it has the most lines," and was happy with his choice.

Venturing Into Publishing

Cameron is writing a book consolidating everything he knows about space. He is using PowerPoint and google images - quite expertly. It will be a long book.

At The Doctor

Cameron had an appointment with Dr. Bennett. Dr. Bennett asked him what he was going to be when he grew up. Cameron said, "Well, I was thinking astronaut at first, but recently I've seen a documentary of the dangers of going into space, so now I'm thinking just astronomer." (So much for nuclear chemist . . . Dr. Bennett remembered that too and asked him about it. Nope, astronomer is the answer now.)

After that, Cameron retreated into himself, appearing oblivious when the doctor tried to talk to him. I suggested he tell Dr. Bennett what he had been learning about pH, so Cameron started writing the pH scale (they were writing on the paper on the exam table) and explaining that 7 is neutral like a teardrop, 6 is 10 times more acidic than that, and 5 is 100 times more acidic, all the way to car battery acid, which is 0. Dr. Bennett asked if he knew what kind of acid that was and told him it was sulfuric acid, which you would write H2SO4.

Cameron went off to Cameron land again, writing on the paper while the doctor and I talked for a moment. When I went to see what he had written, it said, "Venus has H2SO4 in its atmosphere. It is naturally occurring." I guess anything can be tied back to space!

When We Let Him Dress Himself

One Serious Singer

Career Aspirations Of A Seven-Year-Old

"Mom, I wanna be a nuclear chemist."

(And here I just thought he'd waste his life with SETI or something.)

Game-Playing Weekend

First, it was dominoes, by himself. "I'm trying to demonstrate a nuclear chain reaction, but I can't get these dominoes to work. I need different dominoes."

Then, he played Quoridor (a strategy game) with Andrew. He whipped Andrew several times. One time, he took pity on his big brother. They were each 1 step away from winning, and it was Cameron's turn. He said, "I'll just do this , and you can win." It was uncharacteristically empathetic of him - though I don't think Andrew was as amused as me.

Then, he played Battleship with Conor, but it ended in a fight.

Finally, he played Yahtzee with his dad. He's never played before. Michael asked him, "What is the highest number you could get with 5 dice?" A moment's pause, and Cameron says, "Well, 6 times 6 is 36, so let's see. . . 30! It would be 30!" Pretty quick math strategy. . .

A New Start

Cameron had a hard week last week. His behavior reports from school (he gets a DPR - daily progress report - each day) were all beyond poor. The DPR's didn't cover everything though; we had a call from the school each day about some sort of meltdown. (My heart sinks whenever I see that prefix on the caller id.) I was hoping this was just because of the disruption with Gabrian sick, Conor in the hospital, his mom gone . . .

Thank God, that appears to be the case. He got perfect DPR's both days so far this week with glowing comments from his teachers.

Woo hoo! Way to go, Cameron. You can do it!

Offense! Offense!

Cameron kept cheering (loudly) for Conor during the basketball game. Good job, Cameron! But he kept yelling, "Defense! Defense!" no matter who had the ball. I said, "But they're not on defense right now. They've got the ball." After that, he alternated shouting "Defense! Defense!" with "Offense! Offense!" Go ahead - try to convince him that even though it's technically correct, that's not what you yell during a basketball game. I got Gabrian to switch to "Here we go, Fire! Here we go." But not Cameron, who doesn't care at all if he sounds weird. Gotta love that boy and his cheerful obliviousness.

Funny Saturday Quote

While playing with Gabrian and proclaiming he had just slipped through a portal:

"Gabrian, don't talk to me. I'm in another dimension"

Now that is some truth!

Guitar Hero

Cameron and Conor each used their own money to by themselves guitars. It is Cameron's new obsession. We bought it Wednesday afternoon, and even though school time interfered with practice time, he is already able to pick out a couple of tunes.

"Chip"

Cameron found an old Dos game on Lora's original Toshiba computer (think mid 90's) that he has been playing. It's graphics are slightly worse than Atari (for those of you that know what that is). He was loving it.